Monday, October 1, 2012

[CLOSED] Kira Ramen PIK

I personally feel these several months lately, like every week, there's a new place open focusing in Japanese ramen or Taiwanese bubble tea especially in the vast growth cafe districts of Pantai Indah Kapuk. So often that it didn't even come to surprise anymore when I noticed a freshly opened Kira Ramen, just a few steps away from the famous Ikkudo Ichi which from what I seen based on the cars lining, hasn't lost its popularity.

It was just a few days after their soft opening that my friend and I went for a try out. There was not much to say on their interior. Natural wooden chair and tables with painting at one side of the wall describing on the history of ramen. I was a bit disappointed to see the very modest menu book handed to us, with not a single tempting pictures of ramen to tickle our taste buds. It feels like they didn't put too much effort on what may seem small but somehow crucial things for some people, like me. :) Someone who needs a little bit of preview on what to expect, even though I know for sure, a picture can sometimes look deceiving.

They didn't serve quite much options on the ramen. Basically they serve two types of broth, pork and chicken which then each of the broth comes with 3 types of ramen, say like the pork broth comes in choices of shiro (pork bone flavor), Tonkotsu shoyu (soya sauce with pork bone flavor) and Miso. There were also choices of rice and teriyaki items. I was a bit confused to see a bibimbab and kimchi were written in the menu, and when the friendly owner came informing that their ramen is local based with ingredients imported from Japan, I took the opportunity to ask her on this. She explained to me that the chef is local but happen to be expert in both Japanese and Korean dishes, so the chef created a Japanese version of bibimbab with pork, chicken and seaweed.

We decided to ordered Shiro ramen (45k), Tonkotsu shoyu ramen (45k), Pork Gyoza (20k) and two glass of refillable Iced ocha (10k). The ocha suprisingly came in brown colour instead of light green as it supposed to be. I figured it was only a typical normal ice tea not ocha. The ramen came with half slice of Tamago, bamboo shoots and char su. Without saying that the rest on the bowl is not important, but I personally always believe that a good ramen hanging on two main things, the broth and the noodle itself. As I sipped my shiro (pork bone) broth, I was relief that it was delicious. It was very savory and in the right portion of saltiness. The noodle in the other hand, was a bit turn off, it was way too mushy and sticky kind of you can still feel the flour type of way. The charsu came in 4-5 pcs but cut in small pieces. My friend's Tonkotsu shoyu's broth tasted milder due to the using of soya sauce in the pork bone broth. She like it, but I prefer mine.

Shiro Ramen

Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen

The gyoza came with layers of thin crust wrapping around the 5pcs gyoza. Nothing special on the thin crust, I did enjoy their gyoza. The skin's thickness is good, not too thick, not too thin and there was juice meat burst out inside the gyoza. It was okay.

Pork Gyoza

To verdict, my lunch was okay. It didn't give any mind blowing effect on me, but it was quite enjoyable despite the mushy sticky ramen which the owner promised will make some improvement on that. You know, couple of my friends who stay quite far from PIK shared with me an interesting story. Due to the popularity of Ikkudo, they willingly to drive all the way down to north and by the time they reached there, they were thrown off by the long wait list, so they decided to go for the second ramen option in the neighborhood, Sengoku as they mentioned. Seeing how Kira Ramen nestled so close to Ikkudo, I really do hope they will not end up as a second choice... a rebound. Sincerely.